What is your favorite button on any lighting console?
- Thread starterMSLD
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mstutzman
Member
During long drawn out tech processes, I like to label my subs with such things as, Talk, Tech, Musical Theater, and so on so that my production manager and I feel we have some control over the process.
(i.e: Less Talk, More Tech... and a little less Musical Theater!)
(i.e: Less Talk, More Tech... and a little less Musical Theater!)
MillburyAuditorium
Active Member
soundlight, Could you give me a link to a professional grade message kind of light? I only thought it would be good because I didn't know there were professional grade ones.
Would be an interesting thing to have ^_^
Would be an interesting thing to have ^_^
mstutzman
Member
I have this nervous habit of hitting "release" between writing cues, Im sure it drives my designer crazy. That and I hit "channel" nervously, since one of the quirks of the Express console is that it will default to neither "cue" nor "channel" so I will start building and realize Ive done nothing.
The other thing I hate is that in blind, I will build then think I am hitting the softkey S1 for "record" and am on the wrong softkey page.
The other thing I hate is that in blind, I will build then think I am hitting the softkey S1 for "record" and am on the wrong softkey page.
Les
Well-Known Member
When I am on an ETC desk and find myself bored, I like to try to get as many flashing lights on the desk going as possible. (With the houselights up of course) I might hit Blackout, enable Quickstep, bring up a few subs, then go to the next submaster page. It's like Christmas, and it makes the console look very alarming/unhappy.
MillburyAuditorium
Active Member
There probably aren't any professional grade products like this. At least I haven't seen them. Someone doing this on the professional level would either use a gobo, a projector, or something like an HES DL3... but they cost more than my house
. As Soundlight mentioned the problem is the output is VERY low on American DJ products. They are designed to work just fine in small dark clubs with all the other lights off. However the problem is what happens when you bring that up to a theater size scale (which typically means a throw distance of over 40 feet from the house lighting position to the grand drape). Plus you have far more ambient light for those low power LEDs to deal with. The web site says that the AMDJ LED Messenger consumes 55W of power to power 192 LEDs... that's less than 1/3W of power per LED. My Mag LED flashlight burns 3W. Take any typical LED flashlight and stand in the house underneath where you would be hanging the AMDJ fixture with the house lights on and see if you can see your flashlight on the grand. Now try it with the lights off. Now try it with the stage lights on. Distance and ambient light are killers to LED's. Even the top of the line professional theatrical LED's (like ETC's Selador products) need a lot of fixtures to be able compete with the other conventional stage lighting fixtures.
Generally any reference to an American DJ product around here is a joke. DJ gear is just fine in a dark club with short throw distances. However, when you scale it up to theater dimensions you might not even be able to see it on stage.
One other note. Any sort of really pro LED product is going to brag to you you about what type of LEDs it uses (Luxeon K2 or K3? Rebels?), and it's going to give you a wattage rating on that LED. The AMDJ product tells you that they use 5mm LEDs. So what? The size is meaningless information without knowing the manufacturer, model, and wattage. There is a HUGE difference in product quality in LEDs. There are tiny LEDs that are very bright and huge LEDs that are very dim. Without knowing what actual LED they are using you have no idea how bright a fixture is.
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Perhaps install one in the smoking area to notify the crew when to come back in.
slimrocktwo
Member
MillburyAuditorium
Active Member
There probably aren't any professional grade products like this. At least I haven't seen them. Someone doing this on the professional level would either use a gobo, a projector, or something like an HES DL3... but they cost more than my house
As Soundlight mentioned the problem is the output is VERY low on American DJ products. They are designed to work just fine in small dark clubs with all the other lights off. However the problem is what happens when you bring that up to a theater size scale (which typically means a throw distance of over 40 feet from the house lighting position to the grand drape). Plus you have far more ambient light for those low power LEDs to deal with. The web site says that the AMDJ LED Messenger consumes 55W of power to power 192 LEDs... that's less than 1/3W of power per LED. My Mag LED flashlight burns 3W. Take any typical LED flashlight and stand in the house underneath where you would be hanging the AMDJ fixture with the house lights on and see if you can see your flashlight on the grand. Now try it with the lights off. Now try it with the stage lights on. Distance and ambient light are killers to LED's. Even the top of the line professional theatrical LED's (like ETC's Selador products) need a lot of fixtures to be able compete with the other conventional stage lighting fixtures.
Generally any reference to an American DJ product around here is a joke. DJ gear is just fine in a dark club with short throw distances. However, when you scale it up to theater dimensions you might not even be able to see it on stage.
One other note. Any sort of really pro LED product is going to brag to you you about what type of LEDs it uses (Luxeon K2 or K3? Rebels?), and it's going to give you a wattage rating on that LED. The AMDJ product tells you that they use 5mm LEDs. So what? The size is meaningless information without knowing the manufacturer, model, and wattage. There is a HUGE difference in product quality in LEDs. There are tiny LEDs that are very bright and huge LEDs that are very dim. Without knowing what actual LED they are using you have no idea how bright a fixture is.
If you see in this video, it is show being used during the day time with lights on and in good clarity. I don't know if there's some kind of misconception somewhere, or if I am not getting something. I am very aware that the foh spots probably will wash the hell out of the image. But I think I want to rent a few of these kind of lights and see just how washed out they get, some say they will work fine, some say they wont. When we got some just to test them out I will make a video to show if they actually do work okay, or dont. Actually, im going to run up to my local Guitar Center and see if they can let me borrow some of their display products, I know a guy there, so maybe I can borrow them for like three hours for free. Becuase I have seen this lights work great in day time, but other people say they dont, and I dont know what to beleive, so, I will beleive it when I see it right?
Some other videos of American DJ lights in day time.
soundlight
Well-Known Member
Two words: throw distance.
soundlight, I'm disappointed in you; and contend, to explain the phenomenon, one needs three words: Inverse Square Law.
octobersky
Member
"The Pig Key" on a Wholehog
shiben
Well-Known Member
@MillburyAuditorium, those really dont look all that bright when it comes down to it. It says on the website that the output is similar to a 400W halogen lamp. In the house-type settings shown, the lighting is probably being provided with 60W soft white bulbs. In my house, I can take a 60W birdie and throw a color wash on the wall from the ceiling. The point is its not a lot of power needed to outclass your living room light, and so the LEDs in there have no trouble being seen (and in the environment for which this device was designed, it makes perfect sense that it be about that powerful). Now, in our auditorium space, I had to take the stage wash to zero when it splashed against the cyc, as we could wash out our 10K projector. At any range for the ADJ product, its going to get hosed, probably by your Aud. lighting, much less the stage light, due to the Inverse Square Law (which comes down to throw distance). Basically, products from ADJ are designed for DJs who go around and have small, ultra portable rigs that they can set up and add some pulsing color to their set. It doesnt have to be very bright, because there are no other lights involved (think a dark club). If you think of a professional situation, say, a rock show, where we have very similar effects (at lease moving beams of light, color changers, patterns, etc), you are going to see a rig of MAC2ks and VL3ks, etc, run by a board capable of managing thousands of parameters and costing a lot of money, not having the sound bump the lights around. Also, the power requirements for a DJ set are like 2-4 20A wall sockets. Concerts consume hundreds (and maybe thousands) of amps (our arena has 2 400A and 2 100A company switches in back, and its not even very big.) Does this make sense? I know for me the entire distinction was non-existent in HS, took a few college-level productions to fully appreciate it.
Dionysus
Well-Known Member
When I worked at Blyth there is a rather OLD, pathetic ETC console there. I can't remember what it's called. Essentially a really small console with a few submasters, a cue interface, and a really bad chase system (or so I felt).
Anyways I set the chase up (with no actual lights/looks or anything) so that it's onboard display (a small strip of red led's) would scan from side to side. Essentially making it look like the "eye" of a cylon!
lol, whenever anyone else has used it it was un-done for some reason (as if having an empty chase running effected things)... I'd make it a cylon again. When I was having a bad day I'd play with it during level set or whatever when waiting for something to do behind the console, and make it stop, speed up, slow down...
Wow...
Yeah... I know...
In general I love the "blackout" button and the "stop" button. I've hardly ever used either of them, but I like to know they are right at my fingertips.
Anyways I set the chase up (with no actual lights/looks or anything) so that it's onboard display (a small strip of red led's) would scan from side to side. Essentially making it look like the "eye" of a cylon!
lol, whenever anyone else has used it it was un-done for some reason (as if having an empty chase running effected things)... I'd make it a cylon again. When I was having a bad day I'd play with it during level set or whatever when waiting for something to do behind the console, and make it stop, speed up, slow down...
Wow...
Yeah... I know...
In general I love the "blackout" button and the "stop" button. I've hardly ever used either of them, but I like to know they are right at my fingertips.
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